A controversial bill that would require school districts to allow students to enroll in the school closest to their home appears dead this legislative session.

House Bill 151, dubbed the "neighborhood schools" bill, has run out of time, Sen. Dan Seum said Tuesday on the Senate floor.

Seum had been trying to garner support for the bill, sponsored by Rep. Kevin Bratcher, a fellow Louisville Republican.

Bratcher said later that the bill was “passed in the House overwhelmingly, and the Senate has the right to do what they want to do and this is what they wanted to do. What can I say?”

The bill would have required school districts to give priority to students who live closest to a particular school. Critics warned it could lead to resegregation in Jefferson County and cause logistical issues across the state, while supporters said it was a response to frustration from some parents that their children were being bused all over Jefferson County.

On the Senate floor, Seum said Jefferson County Public Schools has little to show for its student-assignment plan, arguing that only about 30 percent of black and about 60 percent of white children are proficient in reading and math.

"I care about these kids," Seum said. "Why would we not want to go back to our neighborhood school with Mommy and Daddy right down the street?"

Sommer Johnson, the parent of a sixth-grader at the Academy @ Shawnee, said she is glad to hear that the neighborhood schools bill was not moving forward this session.

"JCPS has so much to offer our children and we celebrate that our choices will still be relevant when applying to a school close to home or far from home," she said, noting her son chooses to travel an hour and 10 minutes to school.

"Classrooms need to be diverse, and it helps all people to understand and to be prepared for a world that doesn't all look the same," she said.

When asked if he plans to bring the same bill back next year, Bratcher said it’s something “we’ll have to discuss over the interim.”

Seum vowed to keep working on the measure, saying that "we will tackle this problem."

JCPS Superintendent Donna Hargens issued a statement saying that the district shares Bratcher's- and Seum's "passion for improving learning opportunities for all our students" and embraces their willingness to listen to community concerns and work together.

The bill — which excluded whole-school magnets or Traditional schools from this requirement (but not schools with magnet programs) — did not preclude students from choosing to attend a different school other than the one closest to home, but it says that students who live nearby would have an edge.

While legislators said the bill was aimed at Jefferson County, school districts like Oldham and Bullitt said the bill as written would also cause issues for them because it would have allowed students to attend the school the closest to their home.

Oldham, for instance, has three elementary schools in a one-mile radius; an Oldham spokeswoman said redistricting to provide for all students to attend the school actually nearest their home "would be extremely difficult."

JCPS officials and others said they worried about some schools being overfilled and others being underused under the neighborhood schools bill. JCPS said its projections showed, for instance, that students living near Atherton High could fill up all available seats, leaving no room for others to enroll in its International Baccalaureate program or other magnet offerings.

Seum said he expects the interim House-Senate education committee to hold hearings on the neighborhood schools bill in Jefferson County over the summer.

JCPS board chairman Chris Brady said Tuesday that he was "cautiously optimistic" after Seum's comments Tuesday but that the bill is not officially dead until the session formally concludes.

Brady said JCPS' board will continue to look at the student-assignment plan but that not having a law dictating how to make such assignments will better enable the district to plan for growth.

"There have been comments made that the board and the district are choosing diversity over location. Yeah, absolutely," Brady said. "The board looks at diversity as an educational issue. It also looks at it as an issue of equity."

Seum said afterward that he didn't believe the Senate could get legislation on both charter schools and neighborhood schools passed in the same session.

"It's too much. I'd love to do both, but it's too much," he said. He said he likes charter schools and doesn't want the neighborhood schools bill to get in the way.

Senate President Robert Stivers, a Manchester Republican, on Tuesday defended Seum against allegations he said had been made that Seum was racist, anti-Louisville or anti-education.

"It’s so far from the truth to paint us that way and to paint Dan Seum that way," Stivers said, speaking at a meeting of the Senate Republican caucus. "The truth is, how do we educate our babies?"

Reporter Allison Ross can be reached at 502-582-4241. Reporter Deborah Yetter can be reached at 502-582-2554.